Cremator

The Cremator is a tall humanoid creature with a white head, human-like arms, a green cloth around him, a circular object in the middle of his stomach. He wields the Immolator weapon. According to a description in the book Raising the Bar, the Cremator would patrol the streets of City 17, using his Immolator to clean up the streets. His weapon could also be used against citizens if need be.

However, in the prototype, the Cremator has no AI and cannot be spawned. He does have a model and some basic sounds, though. He has 300 HP.

The Cremator's head was reused in a prop in Eli's Lab in the final game, but Eli makes no mention of the Cremator if he talks about the head.

Assassin

The Assassin, often called Alien Assassin, is a lanky alien with pale skin, wearing a black outfit and with cybernetic eyes extending out of his eyesockets.

Like the Cremator, the Assassin lacks proper code, but his animations indicate he was able to toss knives, slash with his claws, activate smoke with a button on his left hand, and toss something called "Tripwire" like a grenade. Generally, his animations suggest that the Assassin was to be a fast opponent that would be able to take large jumps. Sounds indicate that he was supposed to be able to fire electrical balls at the player and play a silly taunt sound.

There is an animation called "inspect" where he looks down, and another one called "inspectalert" where he reels back afterward, presumably after the "inspect" animation was being played.

He has no stats, so it's impossible to see how much health he had and how much damage his attacks did.

In a default installation, the Assassin's model uses an older format (v35), making it impossible to load in-game without converting it to the v37 model format.

According to Raising the Bar, the Assassin eventually became the Fast Zombie.

Alien Assassin deploying smoke with a button on its left hand.

Throwing something.

Running.

Running.

Zombie Assassin

The Zombie Assassin is an Alien Assassin that has been taken over by a headcrab. All that exists of him is a model. The Classic Headcrab on him looks closer to the final design than the prototype Classic Headcrab does.

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Female Assassin

The Female Assassin, despite having "assassin" in her name, has no relation to the Assassin. This enemy looks a lot like a female and lithe version of the final game's Combine Elite enemy. Her head is similar in design to the final Combine Elite's, but her body is much thinner and she wears a white vest over a grey bodysuit. She also has boots that look very similar to the heels that Chell has in Portal and Portal 2. Her main weapon are two pistols she dual-wields.

Unlike the regular Alien Assassin, the Female Assassin has fully working AI. She fires her pistols extremely fast, will jump to the side to occasionally dodge shots, and generally attempts to avoid the player if they get close. Basically, she's very similar to the Human Assassin enemies in the original Half-Life, but is much more aggressive with firing her pistols than her HL1 equivalent is.

The Female Assassin has a unique effect on her helmet that makes red afterimages appear from her eye when she moves. This is mostly seen when she is dodging. Her head also has has an easter egg of a monster's face drawn and the artist's signature on it, which is only possible to see when looking at her head's texture.

She has 150 HP, which combined with her fast-firing pistols and speed, makes her quite difficult to deal with.

This character has a small graphical bug; her pistols do not have textures by default. this can be fixed by adding the VTF files for the Pistol's world models to the Female Assassin's texture folder.

Front.

Back.

Easter egg on the Female Assassin's head texture and the artist's (Ted Backman) signature.

Female Assassin head

Final Combine Elite head

Female Assassin texture sheet and Half-Life 2: Survivor

This enemy uses separate textures for her model, but hidden inside her texture folder is a single sheet with a different look for the Female Assassin. The sheet makes the Female Assassin cleaner, lacks the camo on the vest, and makes the pants a light gray instead of a dark gray. However, this texture sheet does not fit on the Female Assassin model in the prototype and there is no model that this texture fits on.

The Japan-exclusive arcade game Half-Life 2: Survivor has a Female Combine Sniper player model that not only looks very similar to the Female Assassin, she uses a very slightly modified version of the Female Assassin sheet found in the prototype. The concept for this character in the art book Raising the Bar also matches the Female Combine Sniper perfectly. This highly suggests that the model for the Survivor is the Female Assassin model meant for the prototype's newer texture sheet, or at minimum a slightly-modified version of it.

The newer sheet texture for an updated and missing Female Assassin model.

Combine Elite

An enemy called "Combine Elite" exists in the game's files. However, he is completely different from the one in the final game; instead of using the final game's design, the prototype Combine Elite is a sniper in a cloaking outfit that only has his mask and gun easily visible.

By default, the shader meant for the Combine Elite's cloak is broken, making him look like a multicolored blob with a gas mask and a sniper rifle jumbled on him. But, the shader can be fixed, which makes the Combine Elite
render properly..

This enemy's animations appear to be based on an earlier version of the Combine Soldier's. While most of them are similar to ones the prototype Combine Soldier uses, there is one interesting animation called "die" that shows the Combine Elite falling backwards and hitting the floor on his back, even though it already has a ragdoll. In both the prototype and the final game, enemies enter a ragdoll state as soon as they die, so the presence of a specific die animation means that this model is from an early stage of development.

The Combine Elite has extremely barebones code that seems to exist simply to make him spawn and do nothing else.

According to his stats in the skill cfgs, he would have 100 HP; 20 more than a regular Combine Soldier does in Medium and Hard, and double one in Easy.

The idea of a sniper was turned into a separate enemy in the final game (which also appears in the prototype), the Overwatch Sniper. However, this one does not have a visible body, but the game spawns a regular Combine Soldier ragdoll when the Overwatch Sniper is defeated.

Based on the fact that his code is barebones and the final sniper is already in the game, it's likely the Combine Elite was cut long before the prototype was compiled and just didn't have his resources removed yet.

Combine Guard

The Combine Guard is a large and hulking synth that uses a gigantic energy cannon as a weapon (which the player can use!). He has two heads; a human head without eyes that's buried in the synth and has a pipe in his mouth, and a triangular head with blue lights on it that's attached to the top of the Combine Guard. The triangular head appears to be the "real" head, as the Combine Guard's animations shows the triangular head looking around while the human head does nothing.

In-game, the Combine Guard is invincible to everything, even though he spews yellow alien blood from the original Half-Life when shot. His gun is extremely powerful and can kill the player in one hit. He also tends to kill any enemies near him as well.

The code for the Combine Guard mentions that the game would track separate armor pieces on the Combine Guard, each with 50 HP. These armor parts would be on the enemy's left thigh, right thigh, left shin, right shin, torso, arms, and lower torso. These would have to be destroyed in order for the battle to progress. Destroyed parts would cause an explosion, but merely damaged ones would cause smoke to come out of the part. The Combine Guard could also enter a state called "Clobbered". During it, the game would select a random bit of leg armor and destroy it. If all of the armor parts were destroyed, the Combine Guard would enter a "helpless" state, presumably allowing the player to defeat him much easier, given the message that would be printed ("NO!!!!!!!! I'M DEADZ0R!!") when he enters his Helpless state.

This enemy has special animations for the e3_Terminal map, which only exists in the WC Map Pack.

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Combine Guard Gun texture

Of note is that while there is a Combine Guard Gun weapon in the game, it looks completely different from the one the Combine Guard uses. A texture matching the player-used one does exist in the game's files, however. There is also another texture called "CombineGun" which appears to be even earlier than the current and player version models.

Used Combine Guard Gun texture

CombineGun

Used Combine Guard Gun texture

CombineWeapon

CombineGun texture

Usable Combine Guard Gun weapon model

Hydra

The Hydra is a long blue tentacle with a sharp point at the end and visible veins inside it. Its only attack is to impale a target with its sharp point, then move around with the target's ragdoll on it. It must be long enough in order to attack at all.

Its code is quite complex; the code calculates the maximum distance the Hydra can go, how long it should be, how to avoid getting wrapped up, and to plow through physics objects when attacking.

It has 20 health by default, making it very easy to kill if the player could face it.

The Hydra has two more models for the E3 2003 demonstration shown in the map E3_Under; Seer and Smacker. The Seer has an eye-like tip, and the Smacker has an oval tip. What they were meant to do is unknown, as there is no code for them.

While not normally seen in the prototype, a map developer's note in the map d3_under_01 mentions the Hydra as an enemy would have to face in the map, including a final encounter on a bridge.

This enemy was removed in the final version of the game, but its textures are still in the final game's files.

Hydra's back.

Seer.

Seer's side.

Smacker.

Smacker front.

Combot

The Combot is the predecessor of the final game's City Scanner. It keeps the City Scanner's basic shape, but has a red faceplate and a much larger and more orange eye than the City Scanner does. Its rear has "C 17" on it.

Like the City Scanner, the Combot will normally float around a map and take pictures with the flash effect the City Scanner. Unlike the City Scanner, the Combot has a weapon it can and will use, as seen in the prototype's devtest map. It will spew gas at the player if it gets close enough, then retreat. Its animations also show an unused melee attack where it would take spikes out of its body and point them between the folds on its face flaps. How it would attack with these is unknown.

The Combot is also faster and more prone to dodging than the final City Scanner is, making it more difficult to destroy than its final counterpart.

It would also be able to talk to the player or NPCs at one point, as it has unused speech messages related to scanning people, such as telling them to stop and submit for a scan, and some responses for afterwards. However, it does not do this when not hostile, where it would fit.

The final City Scanner's textures and model are already in the game, suggesting the Combot was already on its way out when this prototype was compiled.

Combot

City Scanner

Combot

Final City Scanner

Combot

Final City Scanner

Wasteland Scanner

The Wasteland Scanner is a special scanner for the scrapped Wasteland area. This Scanner looks completely different from any other one seen in the game; it is an orange floating object with a dark purple camera that looks like a fusion of a mechanical and organic eye in the center of it, with three tentacle-like laser shooters on its left side and a grenade launcher on its right side.

There is another Wasteland Scanner model called "wscanner_single". The model is too old to open, but a model editor preview screenshot of the other Wasteland Scanner shows an earlier design for it. The earlier Wasteland Scanner keeps the basic shape, but the body is a muted green color, the camera is a rounded and green-glass like substance that sticks out of the Scanner. It keeps the weapon layout of the prototype's Wasteland Scanner. It also has a what appears to be a blinking animation and the lasers on the left side move around.

This enemy would have the unique ability to connect with others of its type to increase its firepower. Up to three of them could be connected to each other at once. Models exist for the connected Wasteland Scanners, but they use an older model format and must be converted to v37 in order to be viewable. The connected versions lack textures, but their preview images show them using the old design that the single Wasteland Scanner's model uses. This suggests that the connected Wasteland Scanners were never updated to use the textures the single Wasteland Scanner does in the prototype. The same extra animations that wscanner_single, such as the moving laser guns, also appear on these models.

The grenade firing sound for the Wasteland Scanner still exists in the final game's files.

Textured model

Side.

Back.

Side.

Grenade fired by the Wasteland Scanner.

Older models

Single preview image with textures.

Pair preview image with textures.

Trio preview image with textures.

Single.

Older single back.

Pair

Pair back.

Trio.

Trio back.

Missile Defense

The Missile Defense is a robotic enemy that would be used during a removed sequence that would have the player controlling missiles like the Redeemer's alternate fire mode in the Unreal Tournament games. Its model exists in the game's files and it has code found in the Source source code leak.

Based on the code, the Missile Defense would shoot down player-controlled missiles with special bullets. It would have to reload, likely giving the player a chance to hit it with a missile in order to destroy it. When destroyed, its top would explode and it spew some gibs based on the upper part of Missile Defense.

Front.

Back.

Bullsquid

The Bullsquid from the original Half-Life exists in this prototype. Graphics-wise, the Bullsquid's skin is blood-red with yellow, frog-like eyes. Its underbelly is a more pink color, though.

In-game, the Bullsquid generally prefers to shoot projectiles at the player, though it will swing its tail around as a melee attack if the player gets close enough. The Bullsquid's placement in the only map they appear in d2_canals_02, suggests that the Bullsquid was meant to be placed mostly in aquatic environments, like the many canals outside City 17.

Like in Half-Life 1, the Bullsquid will attack any Headcrabs on sight.

Its sounds are similar to the sounds the HL Bullsquid used, but with more bass on it.

The Bullsquid's projectiles have a rendering issue; the trail sprites that were meant to appear behind the projectile do not have transparency, making it look like the player is being attacked by a trail of black boxes with green and pink orbs inside them.

Front.

Back.

Bugged Bullsquid projectile.

Newer Bullsquid

An unused skin for a newer Bullsquid model exists in the prototype as well, but is unused. It turns out the model for this Bullsquid was meant to be used in the Half-Life 2: Episode series for a Bullsquid redesign that would behave more like a crocodile; lurking in the water and briefly attacking while out of it instead of roaming around, like it does in Half-Life and the HL2 prototype.

Houndeye

Code, model and sounds exist for the Houndeye enemy, which originally appeared in Half-Life 1.

Unfortunately, the Houndeye's model is corrupt, but the textures and its model preview image can still be viewed. The textures and preview image indicate that the HL2 Houndeye was meant to be much skinnier than the one in HL, and its model preview image indicates it had some hairs near its eyes.

The code suggests that the Houndeye was meant to behave very similar to the HL Houndeye.

The sounds are identical to those used in Half-Life.

Side texture.

Eye texture

Env texture for the eye.

Texture for the hairs found on the model preview image.

Sand Barnacle

A model for an enemy called a "Sand Barnacle" exists. It uses a temporary brown texture on its body, but it has a complete set in its texture folder. Unlike the regular Barnacle, the Sand Barnacle is mounted on the floor, not the ceiling.

It lacks animations and code, making it is impossible to figure out how it behaved. Based on the Sand Barnacle's name, they're likely he appeared in sandy areas, such as the Coast or the cut Wasteland area.

The intended texture for the Sand Barnacle.

Antlion Grub

A model for an Antlion Grub is in the game's files. This design is much fatter than the one used in Half-Life 2: Episode Two and has a different head. Animations reveal that he would be able to move around, heal while attached to something and attack (unlike its Episode Two counterpart). The attack animation is the same as its idle animation, though.

Of note is that the prototype Antlion Grub model was used in early Episode Two trailers.

Prototype

Episode 2 model

Prototype

Episode 2 model

Prototype

Episode 2 model

Squashed model

There is also a squashed model for the Antlion Grub. This model idea was also reused in the Antlion grub found in Episode Two.

This model has an easter egg on it. On the Grub's underbelly is the text "If you are reading this, you're looking at grub dung".